Joint Chiefs Of Staff

The decision of Donald Trump to declare that transgender individuals are not to be allowed to serve in the military is a major step backwards on human rights.

Transgender men and women have served in the military heroically in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they serve in the military in Israel, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other advanced democracies with no troubles or complications.

This is simply an appeal to the bigoted Religious Right of Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, and other preachers who claim wrongly to speak for Jesus Christ, who would reject their prejudice and hypocrisy.

It is also an attempt to take attention off the failed Health Care attempts to destroy ObamaCare, and also to take people’s minds off the investigation of the Russian collusion of the Trump campaign and Presidency.

It undermines the great progress made on gay rights and gay marriage, and now, the Attorney General Jeff Sessions is arguing that gays and lesbians and transgenders should not be considered as covered under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a total outrage!

Leave it to the right wing whackos, and we might see a future situation where women’s rights to an abortion, and even interracial marriages, might be reversed by a right wing Supreme Court majority.

It is good to see that the military is not, at least at this point, obeying a tweet of our unstable President, and hopefully, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will fight against it, and convince Trump that this will undermine military discipline and morale, and endanger the declared Transgenders already out in the military.

One can sadly expect more prejudice and discrimination against transgenders now in society, and some will die as a result.

Ironically, this bigoted, ignorant, and prejudiced statement by Trump occurred on the 69th anniversary of Harry Truman integrating the military in 1948, and one can be certain that if Truman were alive, he would have appropriate salty language visited upon Trump, and would probably wish to give Trump a swift kick in his rear end and in his private area as well, something million of Americans would cheer!

The Russians and the United States have negotiated a new START Treaty to lessen the danger of nuclear weapons spread, and to verify that each side is keeping the agreement to cut down nuclear stockpiles.

This is a good agreement to cut nuclear weapons stockpiles by thirty percent over seven years, and six former Secretaries of State–three Republicans and three Democrats–have supported ratification of the treaty, which requires a two thirds vote of the Senate!

Leaders of NATO, the national security community and the Joint Chiefs of Staff also support the treaty, but it seems as if the Republicans in the Senate are determined to delay a vote to next year, when there will be six more Republicans in the Senate! 🙁

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona seems to be the key figure involved in negotiations with the Obama Administration on the treaty, and it seems doubtful that, in the crowded congressional agenda in the lame duck session, that the treaty will get a full hearing and a positive vote, which could endanger US-Russian relations in the long run!

This potential stalling and possible defeat of the treaty next year, if not this year, would come despite support of some GOP senators, including particularly Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, an acknowledged foreign policy expert who is highly respected in the Senate by all of his colleagues!

Should politics get in the way of an important treaty such as this? No, but what else is new? 🙁